I wish I wouldn’t have lost my temper and yelled at her like I did, but when I know I’ve been nothing but honest with her, and she accuses me of being a liar and incapable of her trust, it hurts. I want nothing more than to spend my free time with her, but lately, the more time we’re together, the more she seems to be frustrated with me. I don’t know how to get to the bottom of this, but I know I need to do something.

  My work will be here for me tomorrow, so I decide to wrap it up and head home. I need to try to fix this before it spirals out of control. Unfortunately, traffic on the way home is backed up due to an accident, and I get home later than I wanted to. When I walk into the bedroom, I see Emilie curled up with the blanket wrapped around her, fast asleep. I guess our talk will have to wait until tomorrow.

  Since I’m not tired yet, I head back to the kitchen and grab a drink. With my glass of Crown Royal, I sink into my couch and pull out my phone. It’s eleven, but maybe one of the guys will still be awake and willing to talk. I send a message to Jace but don’t get a response. The same with Marc. With my drink in my right hand, resting on my knee, I use my other hand to massage my head. I think back to when she started acting different and try to figure out what was going on and what might’ve sparked the change. Nothing immediate comes to mind, but I know she’s been heavily involved in the wedding planning, and work has been tough, so it might just be stress.

  Emilie seemed to have moved on fairly well after what happened between her and my crazy ex, but I know that was quite the traumatic experience, and maybe she’s having some sort of delayed emotional response to it. I’d hate to bring that up if it’s not the case though and make her think about it again.

  “Fuck!” I curse aloud, downing the rest of my drink and getting up to get another.

  The trip is just a few days away, and the wedding right after, but after all that’s over, maybe it would be good for her and I to get away and spend some quality time together away from everyone.

  I grab my Mac and start looking into some spots we could visit. After about ten minutes, I decide on staying at The Resort on Mt. Charleston. It’s only half an hour away from Vegas, but the resort makes it look like you’re nowhere near The Strip. I make a reservation, finish my second drink, and finally head to the bedroom. After a shower, I climb into bed next to Emilie who doesn’t even stir. Usually she’ll feel me get in the bed and curl into my side or wrap an arm around me, but tonight—nothing.

  We both fall asleep with our backs facing each other and it feels like we’re already drifting apart. I hate this.

  When I wake up, the first thing I notice is that I’m the only one in the bed. I glance at the clock and realize I slept later than I wanted to, and Emilie’s probably already gone to work. The fact that she didn’t wake me up to say bye tells me she’s still pissed.

  After I get up and get ready, I check my phone and see that both Marc and Jace responded to me this morning with apologies of the late response. Jace tells me that he’ll be at one of our clubs today to get some work done, so after I eat a quick breakfast, I head over there.

  The club is empty, so everything is quiet except for the tapping of the keys on the computer in Jace’s office.

  “Hey, man,” I say as I walk in.

  “Hey.”

  I drop into the seat across from him. “How’s everything lookin’?”

  “It’s all good here. I just gotta finish up a few things then I’ll head over to Trinity.”

  “I was there last night trying to catch up on things.”

  “Oh yeah? What all needs to be done?”

  “Just got to get a few more orders in, I think. I was hoping to catch up, but Emilie came by.”

  “Oh yeah?” he says with a smile. “Had a little fun instead?”

  I scoff. “Nah. I wish. We got into a fight instead.”

  “What?” he asks, stopping typing and looking at me with furrowed brows. “What’re y’all fighting about?”

  “I don’t even know, man. Nothing. Everything.”

  “Uh-huh,” he says, motioning with his hand for me to go on. “I know there’s more.”

  “I don’t know what’s goin’ on. There seems to have been this shift, and she’s been snappin’ at me, but I don’t be doin’ shit, so I don’t know how to fix it. She got mad at me last night for not spending time with her on her day off, even though we had spent the earlier part of the day together. She says she never sees me. Oh, and then she was pissed because she found out about the trip to California and said I was lying to her and would rather hang out with my friends than her, and she couldn’t trust me to be honest.”

  “Damn.”

  “Yeah, but besides all that, it’s just been little things here and there. I seem to say things that just piss her off, but shit, it’s nothing I don’t normally say. I’ll make something to eat and she’ll complain that it smells up the house, or that she doesn’t eat that, so why would I make it. But she’s never not eaten what I’ve made before, so I don’t know what she’s talking about. It’s just frustrating, man.”

  “Sounds like it,” he agrees. “Adrienne hasn’t said anything, so I don’t have any inside information for you. So, y’all haven’t been spending time together? How is that possible? You live together.”

  “I’m sayin’! I told her I spend more time with her than anybody else. I don’t know why she acts like I’m just running the streets with my friends. I’ve been working, but that’s it. I know our schedules haven’t been complimentary of each other lately, so when she’s off, I’m not, or when I have free time, she’s at work. I can’t control that, though. It’s just a busy time.”

  Jace rubs his hand over his face and blows out a puff of air. “I don’t know, man. Maybe, ah, I don’t know if I should say it, and don’t tell Adrienne I did, but is it usually around a certain time of the month each time?” He makes a face that makes me laugh.

  “I don’t know. I think it happens too often to be related to that.”

  “Well, shit. Adrienne has her moments. I mean, we all do, you know? Shit gets hard, things get stressful, and sometimes you just take it out on the person closest to you. It’s not ideal, but if you’re usually only with one person, that person is gonna get the brunt of your feelings.”

  “Yeah, I guess,” I say on a breath. “Usually you know when you’re fuckin’ up, though. You know? So you know to stop doing a certain thing or saying a certain thing, but it’s not like that, so I can’t figure out how to fix this.”

  “Maybe it’s something you can’t fix on your own. You guys may just need to sit down and talk this out. Maybe she needs to get something out, but doesn’t know how to go about it.”

  “I’ve been thinking, what if she’s having a delayed reaction to what happened with her and Carla? But if it’s not that, I’d hate to bring it up. I mean, what else could she be wanting to say but feels like she can’t tell me? I could only think it would have to do with us, and if she can’t talk about us, then it has to be bad, right?”

  “Not necessarily, but I won’t pretend to fully understand women. I learn something new every day,” he says with a laugh. “I can try to talk to Adrienne and see if she’s noticed anything or if Em’s told her something, but you know how tight those two are. She may not tell me even if she does know.”

  “Yeah. It’s all right, man. I have a plan to take Emilie over to Mt. Charleston after the wedding. Maybe that will be good for us.”

  “Yeah, maybe.” His tone is hopeful, but I can sense he isn’t quite sure if it’ll actually help or not, and to be honest, neither am I.

  “Okay, man. I’m gonna get outta here. I’ll go over to Trinity and finish up, so don’t worry about heading over there,” I tell him as I stand up. “How’s the wedding planning going? Y’all all set?”

  “Pft. Adrienne doesn’t relinquish control over the wedding plans, so I assume everything is good to go. I got the honeymoon planned, and she has everything else figured out.”

  I laugh. “Well, all right. So, we’re all set on leaving town Thursday? I know Kade and Nico are heading up a little later after they finish a job, and I assume Marc, Linc, and Garrett are getting there together.”

  “Yeah, I’m ready.”

  “Last weekend as a bachelor,” I say with a grin. “Married man by Sunday. I can’t believe it,” I say, shaking my head.

  “I know, man. It’s crazy, but I can’t wait.”

  “That’s good, bro,” I say with a genuine smile. “Well, I’m out. I’ll talk to you later.”

  “Cool.”

  Though I didn’t really solve my problem by talking to Jace, it felt good to be able to talk about it nonetheless. So I feel a tiny bit of tension leave my shoulders as I head to work for the next couple hours. At least this upcoming trip will take my mind off of stuff for a little while, then hopefully I can come back and figure all this shit out with Emilie.

  EMILIE

  “What a shitty, stupid fucking day.”

  “You okay?” Audrey asks, looking slightly scared and confused at my outburst.

  “Just trying to put this cupcake in the display case, and of course it falls over, ruining the frosting.” I throw the cupcake into the trash with more force than necessary. “And don’t get me started on that stupid fucking chalkboard with today’s specials on it,” I say, pointing at the sign outside the store. “Looks like a first grader did a bad job at erasing what was on there before, and just scribbled over it. Can we get it clean, please? And have someone with good writing write the specials?”

  “Yeah, okay. I got it,” she says, rushing out to bring the sign in.

  I huff and swipe at my bangs to get them out of my face. “And where is Chris? I thought he was working today. I need someone to clean up the back. It looks like a tornado’s been through there, and I can’t be lifting all those boxes on my own.”

  “Chris is off today,” Audrey says, struggling with the sign. “Ian is here. I think he’s in the back already.”

  “Well, good.”

  “And Nikki will be here soon.”

  “When she gets here, send her to my office. Better yet, don’t. I’m not in the mood. Can you please go over the basics? She said she had experience, but apparently, she doesn’t know how to properly clean the machines or know how to mop the floor.”

  “Okay.”

  “Thank you.”

  I storm off and peak into the back to make sure Ian is actually cleaning and not messing around on his phone. Good thing for him, he is, so I head to my office and take a deep breath. I also take a couple of Tylenol and down some water.

  After about a minute, I wonder if maybe I’m overreacting to some things, but then I realize it isn’t absurd to expect your employees to do what they’re supposed to do. I mean, perhaps I’m taking a little of my frustration with Troy out on them, too, but I can’t do anything about it now.

  I’m not sure when Troy came to bed last night, but what I do know is that when I woke up, he had his back to me, and was as far away from me as possible. That was the first time we ever went to sleep without a kiss or cuddling up together. More often than not, we go to bed at the same time, but on those rare moments when one of us has to work late and the other person is already in bed, we do just enough to let the sleeping person know that we’re there. A quick kiss, an arm draped around a waist, something. But last night it was like two strangers being forced to share a bed together. I looked at him and started to cry before I got angry at myself for crying and ran off to the bathroom to get ready for work.

  I know I could have informed him that I was leaving for work—another thing we usually do, but I was still angry and wanted him to know.

  Truth-be-told, I’m not even angry that Troy’s going out of town for the weekend. It’s not like I don’t trust him, because I do, but I guess it’s because he was out trying to convince the other guys of this new plan instead of sticking to ours. I just don’t know why he feels the need to not be around me for the weekend, and wants to orchestrate a whole new plan to leave town. I guess it just worries me.

  All I know is that we need to get our shit together before the wedding, because the last thing I want to do is ruin the day for Adrienne and Jace. Me and Troy are set to walk down the aisle together, sit next to each other at the table, give the toasts, and it’s going to be really hard to act like there isn’t tension if we still aren’t talking to each other.

  With a glance at my calendar on my desk, I realize I only have two days before he leaves for this weekend trip. With another sigh, I drink some more water in the hopes that it will help with my headache. All this stress and fighting is making me feel like crap, and that’s another thing I don’t need.

  I massage my own temples while trying to figure out how to approach this conversation with Troy when I hear a knock on my office door.

  “Yeah?”

  The door creaks open and Adrienne’s beautiful face pops through the crack. “Hey.”

  I force a smile. “Hey, come in.”

  A crease forms on her forehead. “You okay?”

  And just like that, the dam breaks and the tears begin flowing. I can’t control them, so I just cover my face and let it all out. I feel Adrienne’s arms around me, pulling me into a hug as she crouches down next to my chair. I throw my arms around her and cry on her shoulder as she rubs my back.

  “It’s okay,” she whispers. “It’s okay. Let it out.”

  I don’t even know how long I cry for, but eventually I pull myself together and grab a Kleenex from a box on my desk.

  “Sorry. Didn’t mean to cover you with my snot and tears,” I say, trying to laugh.

  She rubs my arm. “What’s wrong, Em?”

  I shrug and shake my head, using the tissue to dry the tears. “I don’t know. Everything.”

  Adrienne stands and pulls the other chair around my desk until she’s sitting next to me. “Is this about Troy? Did you guys talk?”

  I scoff and roll my eyes, getting another tissue to blow my nose. “Talk isn’t the right word. We ended up getting into a fight.”

  “What happened?”

  With a deep breath, I begin the story. “I had a plan to go visit him at the office and maybe have a little romantic time, but instead I ended up yelling at him for not telling me about this weekend trip, and he started yelling back, so I left and went home to cry myself to sleep. I don’t know when he came to bed, but we stayed away from each other the whole night and I left this morning without talking to him.” I take a shaky breath and look her in her eyes. “I’m worried, A. I think I really may have screwed this up. I don’t know what’s happening, but I can’t help but worry that we’re nearing the end.”

  “How did it go from planning romantic time to you yelling at him?”

  “I don’t know. I was hoping he’d be able to leave early, but he said he’d be there till closing, and I felt like he was dismissing me. Like I was just in the way. I got angry, and after he said it’s just been a busy time, I went off on how he must be too busy to tell me about his new plans, and then it just kind of escalated from there.”

  Adrienne sucks in a breath and rubs my knee. “You know I love you, Em, and I always got your back, but you also know I always have to be honest with you. I really think you may have overreacted just a bit on this one. I know how Jace gets when things at work become too much, and I’ve even tried to do things to take his mind off of it, thinking I’m helping him out, but he seems to be like Troy with this. They just want to get the shit done so they don’t have to worry about it anymore. They’re workaholics and they don’t ever want things to become too much or fall behind on things, so they don’t feel better until they get their work done. There’s nothing we can do to help them except support them and understand that that’s the way things go. They’ll unwind and relax once they’ve completed their task. You know?

  “I’ve even gotten all wound up at work when I’m coming up on deadlines, and clients keeping adding or changing things, and if my assistant comes in while I’m stressed out, I’ll likely snap on her. It’s happened before and I end up having to apologize later once I’ve calmed down. It’s never anything personal, but work gets to all of us. I know you know how that goes.”

  I nod my head. “I know. I guess it was just that on top of him not telling me about his plans, plus me worrying about why he wanted to change plans at the last minute anyway, while also knowing that things have been a little weird with us for a few weeks. I just feel overwhelmed, and I know I can be over-the-top sometimes, and I let my anger get the best of me, but I just feel so out of whack. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. There are times that I don’t even feel myself, and though I’m aware of it, I can’t seem to fix it.”

  I rub my right temple with one hand and wrap the other one around my stomach. “God, I just feel like so much crap. I’m exhausted, I keep getting headaches—probably from all the crying and stress, and now I feel sick. Blah. I’m over it. I want to sleep for like two weeks.”

  Adrienne regards me for several seconds before standing up and grabbing my hand. “Well, no sleeping for two weeks for you, because then you’d miss my wedding and I’d never forgive you. However, I think I know what you need. Come on. Let’s go.”

  I grudgingly let her pull me up. “Didn’t you just hear me say I feel like crap?”

  “Yep.”

  “And you’re still forcing me out of my little quiet bubble?”

  “Yep.”

  I let out a little growl. “Fine. I hope you’re leading me to mountains of sweets and alcohol.”

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22